[Tekoa Town]

Now that his swords were completely broken after previously taking in the full grunt from the demon, Zaheer then has no choice but to change his weapon at hand and pull out a club and a round shield.

His weapon may be a blunt weapon, but such weapon can tank a lot of hits from the demon due to its density. With that in mind, he stood in between the demon and Asagi.

Now that he is alone and won't be able to acquire help from nearby allies, he then needed to amp his game if he wants to even survive in this confrontation. From that moment on he then entered a state of emptiness, as he clears his mind of any distraction and solely focused on taking down the demon.

Pushing the thought that the demon looks like Ester at the back of his mind. All he needed was to view Ester as a simple demon and nothing more.

"You know... this is the first time I'm fighting a demon, in fact I never expected to encounter one... nevertheless as the oldest person in the group, I naturally need to protect the young..  so if you want to get to the young lady, you have to go through me first"

Hearing Zaheer's reply, the demon simply scoffed at it, as it underestimated Zaheer since it's power has grown due to absorbing Rueben and Jabarin's souls. At the state it is now, the demon is much more powerful than he was a few minutes ago.

With that in mind, it then charged forward in a quick dash, as it thrusted its claws forward, only for Zaheer to quickly react and parry its claws to the side. After that Zaheer quickly swung its club towards it, forcing the demon to make a pre-emptive block due to the sudden counter attack.

Even though it was blown back by Zaheer's swing, the demon's body was barely grazed, as it looked at Zaheer with an indifferent expression.

After making that glance, the demon suddenly blinked beside Zaheer, only for the latter to quickly react to his sudden movement and swung the club towards its direction. However this time the demon easily caught the club mid swing, as it directly yanked the club towards it, before it launched  a quick swing of its fist.

Unfortunately the moment the demon caught his club, Zaheer then suddenly  let go of his club, as he quickly ducked down to dodge the demons quick swing of its fist, before sending in a powerful blow from a shield strike towards the demons chin.

Knocking back the demon's head with a stunning blow, Zaheer then quickly pulled his club off from the demon's grasp, before quickly swinging it towards its tendon on its leg forcing it to take a kneel on one leg, and delivering a quick follow up blow on its head.

Being knocked out of the stunned state due to that blow, the demon then grits the pain from Zaheer's attack, as it quickly launched a counter punch, which was blocked by Zaheer's shield. However even though Zaheer succesfully blocked that attack, the impact from that attack alone was too much for him to tank, as he was blown away and crash at the far distance.

But just as the demon was about to get up, Zaheer then suddenly launched himself forward again, as if he ignored the initial blow that had just blasted him away, and simply focused on this battle.

With the club in hand, Zaheer then swung his club once more as he attacked the demon relentlessly. After all the demon itself has grown considerably strong and if he wanted to even stand a chance against it, he needed to prevent it from getting some room to breath.

If the demon was given time to analyze everything, he would then be put at a disadvantage and making it hard for him to survive this battle. So no matter what he needed to be relentless in his attacks if he wanted to survive. In that moment unknown to the both of them, Asagi is almost done to healing herself and was about to wake up once more.

**********

Meanwhile as the battle at the center of the town became intense, the situation on Sato's side became bearable as the attacks from the unknown monster had ceased. With that they were given huge roomto breath, as they were clearly exhausted from the battle alone.

"Good job everyone!" Praised by Ban
.
"Not yet... the battle isn't over yet... just a few minutes ago numerous explosions can be heard at the center of the town, now it suddenly became quiet... something must have happened there" said by Sato as he looked towards the direction where the fight is happening.

"Your right! As long as her majesty is not here to tell us that herself, something serious might still be happening at the center of the town" said by Takahashi

"That may be so but I can't let you guys go... your not exactly that fit to fight big battles right about now" said by Ban

Hearing her words Sato then looked at the few towns residents that they manage to save from the monsters onslaught. Looking at this meager numbers he couldn't help but felt bitter as he realized that there are more deaths that he couldn't save.

If only he weren't injured from the previous battle and somehow has more stamina, he could have saved more people than he did now. However with the results clearly right in front of him, it was apparent to see how much he is lacking.

If he wants to save more people, his current self was not enough, he needs to grow stronger. That is the only way he can save more lives.

But putting that aside the person who actually turned the tide around in this area and made it possible for them to save some of the town's residents is Asmaveth himself. Without his golems helping in fending off the monsters, many more people would have died under the assault of the monsters.

Surely enough he was beginning to change. What's more the moment the monsters ceased to exist, he then immediately went into a meditative state in order to control his aura and not let it out subconsciously. After all his aura is kind of lethal towards the living. So in order to keep everyone safe, he needed to control his aura from spreading out.

In that moment Takahashi came forward and asked Ban something

"So how's Hino and Fujino?"

Seeing that both the girls are still unconscious, it seems like healing them up wasn't enough to fully wake them up and this state has something to do of their mental state. The brutality of the battles they had undergone must have taken a toll on them. After all this was not done by monsters but rather humans like them.

As per say this was close to murder rather then extermination. In turn this could also cause them to have trauma.

"Same as always, they haven't woken up yet... looks like they have taken quite a blow"

After saying that, Ban started to wobble, as she quickly supported herself and prevented her body from falling. Naturally both Sato and Takahashi saw this and tried to help her. However she refused their help and simply sat down.

"Your tired" reacted by Sato

"Pretty much sums it up... I've been using my magic non-stop after all, looks like overworking my mana had finally taken its toll"

"You should rest up for a bit" said by Takahashi

"I can't! If I do that, the flow of mana to heal the citizens and heal both Hino and Fujino would cease to exist... if we want them to make a full recovery, I needed to keep my magic up"

Hearing her words, both Sato and Takahashi couldn't refute it whatsoever as Ban's magic is the only thing healing up both Hino and Fujino. However at this point Ban may exhaust herself and enter mana burnout.

Mana Burnout is a condition where a mage depletes their entire mana reserve, often causing severe physical, mental, or magical consequences. It typically occurs when a mage overuses their magical energy without allowing time for recovery. The effects can range from temporary fatigue and inability to cast spells to more severe repercussions like unconsciousness, magical backlash, or long-term damage to their ability to use magic.

In some stories or systems, mana burnout might also include fainting, dizziness, muscle weakness, or even collapse. But despite the risk, such a necessary sacrifice is needed in order to save more lives.

*********

While Ban and the rest are taking their time to catch their breath. The battle happening at the center of the town became even more intense as Zaheer tried his best to not take any breaks in between their clashes in order to increase his chances winning this battle.

However the one who is most surprised  of this situation is the demon itself, he never expected that Zaheer could keep up with him at all, much less follow his movements. As the battle goes on, Zaheer is slowly suppressing him with just grit alone. Ignoring the wounds on the body, Zaheer's will is slowly pressuring the demon to the point that it lost in momentum when fighting Zaheer.

As the demon swipes its claws towards him, Zaheer simply used its shield to parry the claws, quickly spinning down below its field of vision and doing a high back kick towards the demons chin which knocked it by surprise and blown upwards.

Afterwards Zaheer imbued mana unto his legs, as he made a huge jump to catch up towards the demon, before he hammered down his club towards it, and forcing him to crash back towards the ground.

The moment the demon crashed down to the ground, it then quickly rolled over to recover itself from that crash, as it opened its mouth up into the air and begun to charge up mana at the tip of its mouth, before firing a beam towards Zaheer.

In response to this, Zaheeer imbued mana unto his shield, as he used it to parry the beam at the expense that his shield would be destroyed in the process.

With the shield destroyed, he then grabbed the club with both of his hand and smacked it down towards the demons head upon landing.

After that he smacked the demons head back with an upwards swing, followed by him relentlessly attacking the demon with continous swings.

In that moment at the exact opportune time, the demon finally was able to dodge Zaheer's 35th consecutive strike and thrusted the claws directly at the club itself. With that clash, the demon finally destroyed the club with its enhanced attack, before it punctured multiple stabs on Zaheer's body and throwing him afar.

But just as the demon thought that he had felled Zaheer, the person himself suddenly stood up as if nothing happened and threw a spear towards it, which squarely hit its shoulder, which further shocked the demon itself.

As the demon looked at Zaheer, it then saw him walking out from the dust and rubble from the place he crashed unto and pulled out a halberd from its inventory.

Upon seeing this, the demon felt threatened even more from Zaheer's will to not back down, as it concluded that it needed more soils in order to strengthen itself. As of now his strength is not enough to fully suppress Zaheer's will. It needs to grow stronger.

Just as the demon was thinking of this, it then sensed a lot of living souls from afar gathered together, which made it quite an attractive offer for the demon. Based on the number of souls gathered in one place, it was quite enough for it to fully strengthen himself and defeat Zaheer. With that the demon quickly made its way towards the gathered crowd and left Zaheer alone.

Seeing the demon flee, Zaheer's body begun to shake as the adrenaline on his body finally left and slowly weakens his body. Not long after he then lost the strength on his legs, as his body falls to the ground and exhaustion permits all over his body.

Apparently he had already exceeded the limit of his body, due to that the moment he calmed down, fatigue manage to quickly catch up to him which rendered him immobile.

Even though he wasn't able to kill the demon, he somehow managed to protect Asagi from being killed and absorbed by the demon.

***ReadAtWebnovel***